This is the home of the Dolvin Consulting Blog. Dolvin Consulting is an Information Technology firm providing computer & technology services as well as finance software & ERP systems to companies in the retail, distribution, manufacturing, and related industries in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania.

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Monday, July 29, 2013

Today is no different than yesterday, nor will tomorrow
be different.CEO’s have a lot on their
mind.Vision of the future,
productivity, profit, competition.How
will my organization “get-it” and work as hard as I do?How do empower them?Are my people interested in a pay check or
succeeding?

Do they believe in me, in my vision?

Will my shareholders support my vision of the
future?

How do I make management care about our market share and
stock price?

Do I care which Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
solution we use or do I care how well we service our customers, grow our market
share and provide value to our stock holders and owners?

Does my management team care
about the company’s stock value?Do they
have a monetary interest in the company?Too often they forget that stock means ownership. How do I make management understand that their
job is to produce gains for the shareholders?Although a manager has little or no direct control of share price in the
short run, poor stock performance could, over the long run, be attributed to
mismanagement of the company.

Successful
organizations know that if you care about the growth and prosperity of your
company, that your primary focal point has to be that your customers come first
and foremost.All the best bells and
whistles mean nothing, if at the end of the day they do not drive efficiency in
your organization to the point that you can service your customers better.

Who purchases your products?

To move forward it helps to document your challenges and
identify metrics by which you can measure change.This might be something simple like
implementing an automated pick-pack-ship process that allows you to track and
identify lag areas in between the actual picking, packing and shipment processing.Why is it taking so long to pick orders?Can the warehouse be better organized to
minimize travel to pick the most popular items? Can the pick list be sorted in the order of
the products in the warehouse?Would it
be more efficient to bulk pick orders, stage and then sort or is it better to
pick individual orders? Why does “Joe”
take twice as long to pick an order?

Time is a
commodity of which we all have the same allotment.

Managing lost, non-productive time is one definitive way
to increase productivity.To do this, an
organization first needs to set this as a priority and then look to their
current resources to see if it has the tools needed to track and measure
results.Most ERP solutions have both
direct and indirect time tracking capabilities.

Workforce management
is just one of many components to building a productive enterprise.

Communication both internally with employees and
externally with the supply chain and customers is another critical function in
productivity and ultimately customer service.ERP systems that are properly implemented have the functions and
features to enable better data collection and communication between all
business entities.

An organized environment where everyone knows what they
are supposed to do and which is reflected in a centralized system provides
management the information they need in a time frame they need it to make
better and quicker decisions.

An environment
where management has the information to make key decisions is the foundation
for less frustration and savings.

Do your employees provide feedback, do you have a system
for them to provide feedback?What good
are your plans, if no one understands them and how they can be
implemented?By establishing key metrics
and implementing automation in stages you enable management to go after tasks
that are inefficient and pull waste from those functions. These are the
building blocks to lean processing. Tracking, measuring and reporting
needs to become a philosophy in your organization.

Acknowledge your
customer’s issues. Treat them like you would like to be treated.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software solutions
should be based on understanding the real business needs. The solutions
can be found if you know what you are trying to solve and what you want to
achieve.

What is the CEO’s
vision of the future?

If you are considering a new ERP solution or updates to
an existing one, you need to determine if any of the proposed features and
functions are related to the challenges you are trying solve?They could be nice features, but do they enable
you to provide better customer service (who buys your products?).

Perhaps you would like
to move to a newer, more feature rich accounting solution, but your ERP
solution is still satisfying the needs of your organization and since you are
continuing to grow, you do not want to disrupt the business by replacing it. The very thing that attracted you to your
solution is now holding you back. Because
it is tightly integrated, you cannot just replace a single module without
replacing the whole thing.

No software is a
solution to poor management or business practices.

Function/Feature is not nearly as important as
Challenge/Solution. Just ask yourself which impacts the bottom line
quickest.

1. Keep your
existing customers happy and you will have a strong business.

2. Concentrate
on providing value, not hype, to find new customers.

3. People learn
about you by using the Internet, so keep your website updated.

4. Deliver what
your customers want, not what you think is good.

5. Planning is
good, but implementation is better.

Dolvin Consulting works.We work to help you help yourself.We are not here to take up residency in your
organization. We are here to help you identify challenges in your operations
and customer service and find solutions that address those challenges through
Enterprise Solutions.Contact us, today, to see
how we can help.That is why we are here.To serve.

Monday, July 22, 2013

“Should we choose
an eCommerce system to fit our ERP system, or an ERP system to fit our
eCommerce system?”So went the
online post for help.Like so many posts
before it, the real answer will only reveal itself once the homework is done.

I know what I
would do, but the choice is not up to me.

A number of years ago someone figured out that a company
might be able to generate revenue by utilizing the Internet.For a long time, way before the Internet was
available to the public, companies understood that automation and integration
were key components in lowering costs.Over time creative people came up with ways to integrate technology to
improve efficiencies, enough so that some business operations are now molded
around available technologies.

An almost universal question that must be answered by organizations
evaluating software solutions is how much will I change my operating procedures
to match the software capabilities or how much will we modify the software to
match our operations.

The answers run
from one extreme to the other.

What we look for is a closer match of software to
business than the reverse.It means that
the software is the right choice.The
Solution provider understands your business and has made the customizations for
you.That is why you pay them or should
is I say what you pay them for.

It is not that a company cannot completely modify a
solution to match their operations, however, that is essentially custom
software and most organizations want to move away from that type of
solution.Granted it meets all of your
business needs, but the problem is that it tends to isolate you from industry
change.This isolation either leads to
falling behind or means that you have to invest in extra staff to keep
current.

No business operates
alone and should not look for a solution that furthers the divide.

There are exceptions.Of course, it is possible that your organization is completely unique,
operates like no other and therefore you need a completely custom
solution.If their products are in
demand and no one else produces them, they have a monopoly and since there is
demand, then it may make sense.However,
the vast majority of those so egotistical have not taken the time to see how
the technology industry has transformed the way it interacts with their demand.

It is more likely that that there were no solutions years
ago and that company had to develop their own.They were industry leaders at the time.Regardless, how will they keep up with change?

This applies to
the Ecommerce versus ERP question that we started out with.

I am sure that a lot of work went into the web site.They may have finally got all the pieces to
work.Well, except for the integration
with the back end.The ecommerce
solution may be working so well that what once worked at one business level,
just simply cannot keep up with the new higher demand.

Sound familiar?

This company came up with a custom solution to meet a
current and growing need.It worked
really well.Business grew.Grew so well, that they grew right out of
their custom solution.Now they have to
decide to scale back the business, invest in more manpower to increase the
integration and accommodate the growth or invest in a new solution, throw some
or all of the existing solution out and then move forward.

How many steps
backwards does this organization now have to take, because they isolated their
technology solution?

It is like climbing a ladder up a building only to
realize they are climbing the wrong building.Depending on a lot of information that we do not have, it is possible
that they may just need a bigger ladder.Of course you have figure out what that new ladder will rest on.Will they have to climb all the way down and
then start climbing once again and hope the ladder is big enough this time?

There is no substitution
for full integration.

That does not mean to say that everyone can afford all
the bells and whistles on an initial purchase, however, does the solution
provider you are considering have a solution for what you will likely need in
the future?Do they have a growth plan
available?What are your choices when
the growth of your operations necessitates more horsepower in your systems and
transactional processing?Will you have
to throw everything out or can you add more resources?

Changing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution
is a lot like open heart surgery without any anesthesia.It is painful.No doubt, but afterwards you are grateful for
the change.Low Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO) contributes to a higher Return on Investment (ROI) and inevitably the
right solution pays for itself.

My answer to the
question is the same answer to any new solution.

Invest in an ERP solution that is designed for growth and
can add features and modules directly or from vetted third-party solutions when
your business needs them.Do not throw
away the development in the Ecommerce solution.No need to throw the baby out with the bath water.Concentrate on integrating the front end of
the current web site with the existing backend web constructs that exist and
are fully integrated with a new ERP solution.Over time, when it makes sense, consider the ramifications of moving
completely over to the ERP offering.

ERP solutions work
best when you let them do what they are designed to do.

Integrate the Enterprise.The more integrated, the higher the operational efficiencies, cost
reductions and increase profit potential.

ERP solutions are not a substitute, or fix, for bad
management, however, good management has the potential to be great with the
right solution.

Dolvin
Consulting works with midsized manufacturers, distributors and specialty
retailers to help them streamline their computer operations, reduce costs, and
increase profits.Those organizations
typically struggle with warehouse and inventory control issues, have outgrown
manual processing or are frustrated with the constant flux in technology and have
lost the ability to keep current.

Monday, July 15, 2013

What are people saying about your Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) solution?Does it improve
your bottom line results by leveraging the latest technologies?Can it run on-site (on premise) or in the
Cloud to meet your needs?Is it an
all-in-one solution?After all is that not
what an “Enterprise” solution is supposed to do?Do your people have anytime anywhere access
to the information they need to make intelligent decisions and to get their
work done?

Does innovation in
your ERP solution accelerate your results?

Video quotes
and thoughts:

·I am a
better manager with my employees.I can
clearly see what they are doing.I never
have to wonder if they are working.

oProductivity
improved.More accurate and on time
shipments to your customers.

·Efficiencies
have gone up 47%.

oThis
is a key component on making a decision to implement or switch an ERP
solution.To drive efficiencies.Increased efficiency means lower costs and
better profits.What are they doing with
that increase in efficiency?

·My team
is better prepared.

oSuccess
lives in the details.The better
prepared your team is, the better they are able to handle customer challenges
and provide great customer service.

·Everything
went off without a hitch.

oGreat
planning and experience from the solution provider which took the time to
understand the challenges and impact the solution could bring to make the
transition as painless as possible.Does
your ERP provider care about you?

·Very good
forecasting package.

oBetter
planning means better operation.Being
able to plan well helps to drive efficiencies. Having the information and knowing what to do
with it is key.Do you think that a
better forecast would lead to better on hand inventory and better customer
service?

·Increase
sales volume.

oWhatever
your particular threshold, doing more sales means you are likely running more
efficiently and you are delivering great customer service.There is some reason why the customer are
purchasing more.

·Nothing
compares to the Power Systems reliability.

oConcentrate
on your business and customers, not the system it is running on.One really important consideration about the
equipment your solution runs on.More
time for customer service!

·We were
guaranteed speed and uptime.

oYou
cannot keep your customers happy, market your product, or compete effectively, if
the system you are relying on does not work.A fast system is nice, but worthless if it is not up and running.There is a big difference between up and
available.Which do you think your
customers prefer?

·Likes the
process as it helps to develop corporate relationships.

oOf
course, people do business with people they like, first and foremost.That is why a system with integrated
functions helps to develop and nurture relationships.Those relationships lead to more business and
happier customers.

·Flexible
ad-hoc reporting.

oBuilt
in reports are a nice asset.Many times ERP
systems either have too much or too little information or the information is
there, but not in a way that is easily digested.The
ability to see “what-if” and the ability to put that power in the hands of end
users is empowering.What higher level
of customer service could you achieve with the right information at your finger
tips.

·The Warehouse
Management System (WMS) enables to us to know exactly where every case is
located and how many we have.

oInventory
accuracy is a key component in any system. Finding the inventory is really important.On time, accurate shipments, replenishment
ordering, labor efficiency are just a few benefits.From a customer perspective – did I receive
what I ordered when it was promised?

·We are informed
about our customers.

oHow
do you feel when you purchase and the supplier knows who you are, what you
purchased in the past, your buying habits, your budget, what you like and what
you do not?Do you feel special?Do you feel that they care?What did they just do to keep you as a happy
customer?Would you want your customers
to feel that way about you?

·Multiplatform
coexistence.

oAll
in one systems are a great asset and help to drive efficiency, however, there
are many legitimate reasons that organizations may have a need for more than
one system.When those systems work
together, then you can concentrate your time and budget on what matters most
(customers).

·Our
service level is second to none.

oOn
time, accurate production and delivery.Sufficient,
but not excessive inventory levels.Reduced
overhead, better planning.Who benefits?

oThe
solution does what it says it will.Our
ERP supplier not only promised, but delivered.Our operations are better.Our
customers are happier.We are
happier.Finally.A supplier that treats its customers how they
like to treat their customers.

Any solution should not only drive efficiency to lower
costs, but should have the net effect of delivering the best possible customer
service possible.No one has an
unlimited budget.So Return on
Investment (ROI) is important.Any
organization that invests in itself wants to feel comfortable that they made
wise decisions.

How your ERP solution provider treats you is an indicator
of how you treat or would like to treat your customers.How well do you stack up?How happy are your customers?When was the last time you asked them?Have any given you a referral (with or
without you asking for one)?

Each time I watch this video I see and hear another
aspect of this particular ERP solution and I look to see how that highlighted
feature, module or solution better enables that company to serve their
customers.Take three minutes now and
go watch it again: http://youtu.be/z6FGBQW0mQA

What would the net effect of an investment like this one have
on internal operations and personnel?Will it enable them to achieve better levels of service to their
organization and their customers?

Monday, July 8, 2013

This statement
is exactly the point that should resonate with business owners.With the recent publicity of the Internet
Cloud services, everyone’s focus seems to be there.There are a great number of benefits for
Cloud services, storage, collaboration, and operations, but there has to be a
business driver to make the changes.

Cloud or not,
any investment in technology should have a driver that will provide a
reasonable Return on Investment (ROI).The recent fiscal crisis focused on cutting costs and increasing
efficiencies.Budgets were and still are
very tight, so there needs to be business driver to make changes.What is good for the business?What will allow us to compete more
effectively?How can we use technology
to empower our people to open and serve new markets?

In years past,
the Technology Department in a corporation reported directly under the Finance
department and was used to tabulate numbers for financial reporting.Technology has evolved through time to the
point where it is fully integrated in our lifestyles.All you have to do to verify this is stop
walking or whatever you are doing for a minute and look around.People are stuck in their phones, tablets,
and laptop computers.Used to be at a
luncheon if you saw someone bowed, they were giving thanks, now more than
likely, they are checking their email.

Everyone is a technology user today.

This shift in
technology from the glass room to people’s hands has changed the view of how
technology should be used in business.The shift is not only in the technology itself, but also includes the
business.The Internet and related
technologies has leveled the competition plane enough so that companies from
one to twenty or more now have access to tools and technology that keeps them
connected and competitive.Smaller
companies are more agile and can make a technology shift and adopt new technologies
much more quickly than large organizations.

Regardless of company size, executives want and
need their phones, email, messaging, and applications in their hand, available
when they need it, on their schedule.

This
transition is not a blanket resolution to say that Information Technology
Departments have no role in the decision process, it is more a reflection that
they themselves are taking on different roles.Solutions are being driven by the business demands and technology is
looked at to deliver the solution.

One note of
caution for the early adopters is the more separate systems that are
implemented either on premise or hosted in the Cloud, the greater the burden on
the transfer of information and an exponential growth for errors.This is no small issue.Every time humans are involved, the more
humans involved, the greater the potential for errors.

The prevalence
of new technologies eventually leads to consolidation at some point. Multiple suppliers offering almost identical
products and services.It is a trend
repeated throughout history.The only
difference today is that it can take a lot less time for products and services
to transition.Adopting new technologies
quickly can give a boost to a company, however, that new technology may also be
replaced tomorrow or consolidated to another platform.This can actually destabilize an organization
depending on how much that organization relies on the technology.

Public, private, hybrid, large corporation, small
supplier, there are a multitude of choices.

What really
matters most is customer service.How
well your supplier of services serves you is a reflection of how well you
service your customers.You will
naturally be attracted to those that give the same level of service or the
level of service you want to deliver.

There is a lot
of use of social media to get a consensus of what works and what does not.Industries are the same and yet each
organization struggles at different points along the path to success.This is where a trusted advisor can
help.The advisor can take an objective
view of the organization and let them see themselves in a new way.The advisor can narrow the field of many
solution providers to a few candidates taking care of the leg work allowing you
to concentrate more on your business.

You just cannot make the decision alone.

While true for
many technologies, this is especially true of Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP) solutions.Given the scope of the
change an ERP solution can make for and in an enterprise, it takes
correspondingly more effort and diligence to make the right choice.

A lot of time
and energy can be invested in trying to upgrade and make work an existing
system that was never intended to handle the latest business trend.

Selecting an ERP solution is an educational
process.

It requires
open dialog so that the solution matches the challenges.Many sales people call offering solutions to
problems that do not exist.To avoid
that, someone needs to be open and honest about areas that could use
improvements.This is where a trusted
advisor can help by interfacing your challenges with potential solutions.

Deeper
relationships are needed in today’s ever changing world of technology.An understanding of the role technology plays
in an Enterprise is a crucial factor in selecting a trusted advisor and
solution provider.

Dolvin Consulting works with industry experts
to deliver Enterprise solutions that drive efficiency, reduce costs and
increase profitability.Contact us today to see
how we can help you define the challenges that slow your business down and
identify potential solutions.

Monday, July 1, 2013

I have discussed Berk Enterprise in the past.Still a great company as far as I know and I
hope they continue to be successful.What I find interesting is what points stand out when I take another
look at their video.Each time I see
something new.

There are a number of really good points made in their
video.The point(s) that stick are most
likely indicators of areas in your organization that could use
improvement.Or areas where you wish you
had more comfort.We tend to focus on
our biggest concerns. And for a good
reason.What do you see and hear?

After thinking about some recent conversations I have had
with some prospects and associates lately, this video highlights a consistent
theme that I see either lacking or celebrated.The relationship between the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution
provider and the business is really critical.

If budget were not an issue a lot companies would make
changes in what they were using and who they worked with.Most businesses at least want to know that
they are doing the best they can with the available resources at their disposal.

Would a new system drive enough efficiency to
pay for itself?

Who do you trust?Does a proven track record matter?Does the size of the organization providing support matter?Are they one or two people sitting in a
garage?Are they thousands of employees
spread over the globe?Are they regional
and sized big enough to maintain what they have created and develop new modules
to meet the changing demands of your industry, yet small enough to take the
time to talk with you?Will they (how
will they) help you stay competitive?

Do you have the feeling that you are being left
behind?Have you so modified your
systems in an effort to keep up with demand that it takes too many people to
keep everything tied together and working?Are you spending your time on business operations or running your
business?Does your system provide the
information you need, in the time frame you need it, to make intelligent decisions?

Do you think it would be wise to ask advice before
planting a new tree in your yard?After
all, it might help to know what others have experienced.How tall and wide will it get, does it
require a lot of water, does it need special soil, will it tolerate the
seasonal weather change, will it drop leaves, berries, or other debris?Perhaps there is a reason why that nursery
has experts to ask questions and give advice.

A trusted advisor can
help span the gap between your organization and an ERP solution provider.

Would having all of your separate operations consolidated
in a single system help to drive efficiency?Would being able to get as much or more information out of your system
than you put in it be reason to consider making a change?Better information, better forecasting,
better planning.Insight.

There is a saying
that the teacher appears when the student is ready.

How well would you rate your company’s relationship with
your ERP solution provider?Are they
investing in your future?Do they care?Are they sincere?How well do they communicate with your
people?Do they follow through?

Do they listen?

At Dolvin Consulting,
we work with you to understand your challenges, what keeps you up at night.We work with your team to improve the
efficiency of your operations with the goal of reducing your costs and
increasing profits.Contact us today to see
how we can help.We do care.We will listen.No false promises, just conversation.